Reoccurring supernatural creatures in early Irish and Scottish literature, the Bocánaigh were airborne shrieking demons that haunted battlefields and areas of combat encouraging and exulting in the bloodshed below (monastic scribes sometimes glossed their names in Latin as “demons of the air“). They may have had a goat-like appearance or a goat’s head suggesting a derivation from bocán / pocán “male goat”(also boc / poc “buck, he-goat”). In modern literature, particularly Fantasy fiction, they are sometimes equated with the Fomhóraigh though this is open to debate. In some Middle Irish texts the Fomhóraigh are described as having the heads of goats but the Bocánaigh seem to have been a more elemental form of spirit closely associated with violence and violent death. The relative uniqueness of the Bocánaigh in the Medieval Judeo-Christian tradition makes it very likely that they derive from the indigenous mythological beliefs of the Gaelic-speaking peoples.

There is the possibility of a link between the literary Bócanaigh and the rather mysterious Gabharchinn as well as the better known folkloric Púcaí, not dissimilar elemental creatures from the late traditions of Ireland, Scotland and Mann. The invariably hostile Púcaí can appear in goat-like form and it may be that in part they are a distant echo of the mythological and arguably pre-Christian Bocánaigh.

Na Bánánaigh

The Bánánaigh were supernatural beings generally imagined as screaming female demons or spectres, drawn by violence to circle the skies over areas of combat. They usually accompanied the Bocánaigh in early Irish texts. The name itself has been interpreted several ways with suggested derivations from bean / ban “woman, wife”, ban “female-” (a prefix), or bán “white, pale, fair” (one suggested translation is “pale-face female”, as in the paleness associated with a corpse). Though occasionally equated with the Fomhóraigh in contemporary use this is erroneous.

Given that several female figures belonging to the Tuatha Dé Danann are closely associated with warfare and in a form similar to that of the Bánánaigh (the Mórríon, the Badhbh Chatha, Neamhain, Macha, etc.) there is little doubt that they belong to the same community of Otherworld beings. Furthermore, it is certain that the modernish Hiberno-English folklore being, the Banshee (Bean Sí, literally “Otherworld Woman”), has inherited something of the tradition of the Bánánaigh, albeit mixed with other legendary influences.

While comparisons between the Bánánaigh and the Scandinavian Valkyrjer (the Norwegian name for the Valkyries) are obvious (and probably correct) there may also be some similarities with the Trolls of Germanic tradition. These supernatural beings in the original Germanic and Scandinavian myths are very different from their folkloric descendants. While often monstrous in form they are exclusively female, closely associated with violent death, and are sexually promiscuous with both humans and giants (but not, significantly, the gods). With their attraction to violence and sex (and occasional monstrous guises) the various “war-goddesses” of Irish mythology do bear some resemblance to the original female trolls of Scandinavia, Germany and England.

Also, religions corrupted her origin as demon slayer, as all females who slayed demon like Banshee. Religion turned her into demon because they forbid woman education and how to write to tell the true stories. Religion sucks.